Showing your website banner on other website is a wonderful advertising method! If you don’t have any banners for your website, you can either get them for free through an online banner generator like Ready Banner or you could hire a designer to make some for you like WAHM Hosting. The problem with advertising on other people’s website is that it costs money for each website you place your ad on and the advertising costs can really add up! Plus, you would need to periodically check on all of the websites you advertise on to make sure that they are keeping your banner up while you are paying them for advertising. And, of course, there is the problem of making sure you get the most out of your money by making sure you are advertising on websites that get a lot of traffic.

Banner Exchanges are very popular because they allow you to place your banner on other websites for free. Like the name says, it is an exchange. A simple definition of how it works is that you will be placing a banner on your website in exchange for your banner being placed on another. Most traffic exchange websites like Surf With Moms have a built in banner exchanges.

The banner exchanges found in traffic exchanges are fully automated. When you join, you are given a piece of HTML/Javascript code to place on your website. That code is setup to rotate member’s banners.

There are many benefits to automated banner exchanges. For one thing, it is free! Also, the banner exchange keeps track of your stats for you. You don’t have to spend time checking that your banner is being displayed on every site that it should be on. And, most importantly, you can control how much your banner will end up being showed more on the sites that get a lot of traffic!

Here’s what you need to do to get started with a banner exchange:

1. Sign up for an account with Surf With Moms (if you haven’t already).
2. Under the Earn Credits section, click on the link that says Banner Codes.
3. You have a choice of which size banner you would like to show on your website. When you find the banner size you want to show, select and copy the text within the textarea box.
4. Place that code on your website. If your website has a template that it uses for every page, that would be the best place to place the code. If not, add the code to as many pages as you would like. There is no limit to the number of pages or number of websites you can place the code on. If you only want the code on one page, Index or Home pages typically get the most traffic and would be the ideal place for the banner code.
5. Everytime your website gets seen, you will earn banner credits.
6. Go back to Surf With Moms and click on the link in the Manage Website Information section called My Banners.
7. Click on the Add New button and fill out the small form that appears.
8. After you Save (hit the little green S button) the banner and it is approved, it will automatically be placed in the rotation of banners used by the banner code you added to your website. The banner system is smart enough to recognize your own banners by the code you placed on your website and won’t show your own advertisements on your website!

That’s it! Good luck with your banner advertising!

Another great way to earn credits is by building a downline. You get credits for every person you refer to Surf With Moms. You also earn credits whenever they surf.

When you click on the My Downline link, you are shown a list of the people you have referred. If you click on the View Level link next to their information, you will see a list of the members they have referred. You earn credits for the members you refer as well as the members that they refer. In fact, you earn credits for members 3 levels deep. If you are a pro member, you earn credits for members 4 levels deep.

You also have the ability to email your downline. There are strict rules about spamming, so this should only be used when you think you have something your downline would be interested in such as credit exchanges.

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, you will find banners and links that you can use to promote your referal link and gain more members in your downline. You can place these anywhere online that you are allowed… blogs, websites, topsites, other traffic exchanges, etc.

The referral tracker shows you where your downline is coming from. Everytime someone visits your referral link for Surf With Moms, it is recorded in the Referral Tracker area.

The page shows a list of all the websites that are bringing visitors to Surf With Moms using your referral link. It also shows how many people signed up under you from each website. This is a great feature to look at if you are promoting your referral link in many different places.

Surf With Moms also has tools to help build downlines for your other programs. You can add your referral links to the Add Programs area. Just make sure that the program is not already added in the Downline Builder section.

Note that your affiliate link does not go directly into the URL field. You should put the main url in this field followed by a special code where the referral part of the link goes. For example, if your referral link is: http://surfwithmoms.com/?r=57962, you would put: http://surfwithmoms.com/?r=[ID] into the URL field. Then, you would put the 57962 into the Referral ID field. This ensures that the link is properly formed in the Downline Builder section.

Fill out the required fields and click the S button to save it. When you are choosing the category, choose the one that most fits the website. If you would like to see a specific category that isn’t listed, please let me know and I will add it.

The Downline Builder is where all the links from the Add Program section get added. You can search here for programs that other members would like you to join.

When you find a program you would like to join, follow the member’s affiliate link (you can click on the Visit Website link) and sign up. Then, come back and enter your referral id into the correct field and click on the save button.

When done correctly, your new referral link replaces the previous one. So, the next person to sign up does so as your referral.

The following is a guide on the different ways you can earn credits at Surf With Moms. When you login to Surf With Moms and go to your tools page, the first section you will see is called Earn Credits.

The first link is Surf Now. Surfing is the most popular way to get credits. When you click on the Surf Now button, a new window opens up where you can surf other member’s websites. You will notice a timer at the top (or bottom) of the page and after it has counted down, you will need to click on one of the colored buttons. If you select the wrong color too many times, your account will be flagged. Clicking on the wrong color too many times usually happens when cheaters try to use automated programs to surf. This is one of the many anti-cheat measures in place.

Speaking of anti-cheat measures, there are some special pages placed inside of the rotation to make sure that you are paying attention. When you come across this page, it tells you to click on a select button. Doing this will earn you some extra credits. If you click on the wrong button too many times, your account will be flagged.

While surfing, you will also notice some banners in the surf bar. Occasionally, there will be a message at the top of the banner telling you to click on the banner for extra credits. You will not be penalized for missing these, but it is a good way to earn some extra credits while surfing.

The second link is called Banner Codes. Clicking on this will give you a special piece of javascript to place on your website. There are several different sizes to choose from.

You can place the code on your website, blog, topsites, etc. Basically, anywhere where you are allowed to place your own code. Once the code is in place, your website will start to show our member’s banners in rotation. When people visit your website and see the banner, you will earn banner credits.

The third link is called Text Codes. This works the same way as the Banner Codes. Clicking on this will give you a special piece of javascript to place on your website. You have the ability to change the colors of the Text Ads. I also recommend selecting the Open In A New Window box so that your visitors won’t leave your website when they click on one of the links.

You can place the code on your website, blog, topsites, etc. Basically, anywhere where you are allowed to place your own code. Once the code is in place, your website will start to show our member’s links in rotation. When people visit your website and see the links, you will earn text credits.

Another way to earn credits is through the Ad Clicker link. Links to members websites are shown randomly in the Ad Clicker. You can earn credits for clicking on these links and looking at the websites. You need to visit the site for 10 seconds in order to get credit, so take a look at what the site is all about while you are waiting.

As always, there is a link to report the website if you found anything the site that violated our rules.

Before a website is allowed in the surf, banner, or text rotation, it must be approved. You can help approve other member’s websites in exchange for credits. The instructions on how to approve websites and what is not allowed are given on the approve page. Also note that the rules are different for websites going into the traffic exchange than for the banner and text links. For example, websites going into the surf can not have audio and must not break frames. For banners and links, this does not matter.

You will not be allowed to approve your own sites, banners, etc. I try to approve websites as quickly as I can, so this area doesn’t always have links to approve, but keep checking because you get 10 conversion credits for every website you approve.

The Convert link isn’t a way to earn credits, but I put it up in that section anyway to make things easier. There are 4 different types of credits that you can earn through Surf With Moms: Website Hits (earned by surfing), Banner Credits, Text Credits, & Conversion Credits. When you click on this link, you are able to convert any type of credit into a different type of credit.

A great example of where to use this is with affiliate sites. You may not have the ability to add a banner code to your affiliate websites, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get banner credits! You can exchange your surfing credits for banner credits so that your affiliate banners still show up as a part of the Surf With Moms rotation.

The last link in the Earn Credits section is the Trade System link. On this page, you can give credits to other members. Your credits must be in the Conversion Credit form before you can trade them.

You can sell credits to other members, offer credits to members who complete purchases from you, etc. There is no fee for trading credits.